Granby, CO - A Different Rocky Mountain Hi

©2013 Text and Photos by LeeZard

Tuesday July 23 – Superior, CO-Granby, CO

The Colorado Rockies might be my favorite region in America. Maybe that’s because I’m here now but it’s always been special for me.

I’ve driven through the Rockies many times; it’s always been on Interstate-70 – nice, but not like this. Today I am winding my way through the mountains on U.S. 40 twisting and turning upward to The Continental Divide at Berthoud Pass (elev. 11,307 ft.). There are spectacular views at almost every turn as the speed limit varies from 45 MPH on the safer curves down to 15 MPH on the hairpins.

 I am heading for Granby, CO in Grand County, 93-miles west of Boulder. I chose Granby because it is the largest town in a county with a per capita income of $38,000 compared to Boulder County’s $52,000. And, don’t mistake “largest town” in the county with “large town;” Granby’s population today is 1,857, down from 2,080 in 2008.

Winter Park, CO

While only 20-miles from the cabins and condos in the heart of ski country’s Winter Park, Granby might as well be 20,000 miles away; Granby is the economic other side. The Great Recession came late, hit hard and hasn’t quite left.

Wally Beard is Granby’s Town Manager; he runs the place. His timing was impeccable. Beard started work on July 14, 2008. “There was still some building and things going on,” he says, “but it deteriorated very rapidly.”

While most of Granby’s revenue comes from the sales tax, it was the property tax that took the biggest hit, down a whopping 40-percent and that’s a third of the town’s general fund, according to Beard. The town also relies on a “use tax,” levied on cars and services not purchased in Granby. Beard says that dropped from about $600,000 per year to less than $100,000 now.

Beard knew what was coming when he arrived in 2008 and immediately began preparations. He either cut or curtailed services across the board. Despite his preparations, however, the tsunami hit harder than his projections, especially for the property and use taxes. Miraculously, only one person in Town Hall was let go while another left voluntarily.

Today, Beard says Granby is a different town. “There was a lot of home construction going on when I got here and that has just about zeroed out. I know of seven businesses that closed in the past five years while four new ones remain for a net loss of three.”

Perhaps the toughest part of the recession for Wally Beard was personal. He came from Bethel, Alaska to take the position in Granby. His wife remained behind to sell their home. Because of the bust, it took two years to sell the house. She was also six months from being fully vested in her employer’s pension plan so she opted to stick out. Beard didn’t see her in all that time. “It was two years, 10 months and 15 days,” he says wryly.

At age 66, Beard thought he’d be retiring soon. “Our retirement fund took a big enough hit that I’ll be working another four years.”

Thirty-seven year old Robert Cox has worked in the local Edward Jones investment firm’s office for the past 18-months. Before that he was the Chief Financial Officer for a local resort developer. “When the recession hit, bonuses went away, salaries were frozen and then we all took a five percent cut. Benefits started disappearing. Eventually, 30 jobs were cut, more than half the staff. In 2012, I was let go myself.”

It took Cox four months to land the job at Edward Jones, not bad except it was a 50 percent cut in pay. He is married with three kids. “I’ve had to cash out my entire 401K to get by,” he says.

“I went from the luxuries in life, doing what I wanted when I wanted to having to plan for things, save for it. I think it’s actually come out better for me, a blessing in disguise; I appreciate things more. If I want something I have to work for it now. The other way was too frivolous, wasteful. Even if I got back to the old level of income, I wouldn’t change anything.”

Then, Cox shared an even more profound lesson, “I learned I was probably not raising my kids the most appropriate way, ya know, to have them learn what a dollar is, that ya have to earn it.

Kathy Burke manages the Edward Jones office in Granby. I asked her for an overall sense of how their clients felt during the recession. Her answer wasn’t really a surprise, “Overall there was more fear and there is still fear now for another potential downturn. As a result people are investing more emotionally. If they hear something on the news good or bad they will react and move to change their portfolio.”

Ski country never seemed further. 

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SIDEBAR: Tanks, But No Tanks

This is also a recession story and, it’s a sad one, but it’s also too good a story not to tell. A clerk in an appliance store first told it to me and, Town Manager Wally Beard confirmed it.

In 2010 a local landowner – let’s call him Jack – found himself in a battle with the town council over some water rights or, more precisely, income from water rights. It seems Jack was experiencing severe recessionary financial pressure and the town was looking to purchase some water rights. Jack wanted, no, Jack needed that income.

Much to Jack’s dismay, the town purchased the rights elsewhere. As they say, payback’s a bitch. Jack came up with a plan.

He took an old Cat dozer and turned into a tank. That’s right, a tank. He engulfed the dozer with several inches of heavy armor, mounted a gun on top and literally went to town.

Jack started by bulldozing several downtown businesses on the main drag into rubble. He pointed the big gun at the local newspaper’s building and somehow missed with his shot. Not to be deterred, he rolled on to Town Hall and, likewise, reduced it to nothing.

The police mobilized and prepared for the coming standoff and apparent suicide by cop but it was not to be. Jack’s final demotion was, indeed, final. The rubble came down on his tank and he was trapped inside.

I guess every cloud, no matter how violent its thunder, has that silver lining. The buildings downtown are rebuilt and Granby has a brand-spanking new Town Hall – a beautiful building, I might add – and a new library that replaces the old one under the demolished Town Hall.